There are a lot of New York Giants fans who are ready to move on from Daniel Jones as the team’s starting quarterback. In 2022, the team went on a great run, exceeding all expectations and finishing 9-7-1, earning a playoff spot and defeating the Minnesota Vikings on the road during Super Wild Card Weekend.
In the divisional round, their lack of talent was exposed by the Philadelphia Eagles, who defeated them 38-7. Moves were made in the offseason to help the team take that next step, but the 2023 season has been a disaster.
In the middle of that has been Jones, who signed a four-year, $160 million deal in free agency. Even before his season-ending knee injury in Week 9 against the Las Vegas Raiders, he wasn’t coming close to living up to that deal.
Jones regressed in every area in 2023 compared to 2022. That is concerning, given the contract the Giants signed him to, but also because he was so thoroughly outplayed by his backups. The team was more competitive with Tyrod Taylor starting in his place and undrafted free agent Tommy DeVito needed two relief appearances and one start to produce more touchdowns than Jones did.
The Giants have a lot of issues on their roster, but fixing things at quarterback is paramount. Likely in a position to select one of the top quarterbacks in the 2024 NFL Draft, former New York star Eli Manning believes they should not go that route. Instead, he believes they should stick with Jones.
From Heavy.com, “Instead, Manning told Andrew Marchand and John Ourand of “The Marchand and Ourand” podcast (h/t Justin Tasch of the New York Post), “He’s still in the first year of the offense, played extremely well. He can run, he’s tough. He can make the throws. Just unfortunately, this was a tough year with injuries. … And so, I think you still got to trust your quarterback.”
The two-time Super Bowl MVP also believes that Jones is, “going to come back, he’s going to be healthy. He works hard. He’s a great teammate. He does all the intangible things really, really well, and I think they got to trust him, can put some guys, get help around them and continue to grow with these teams.”
That is going to be a tough sell not only to Giants fans, but the regime running the team. There is a reason that the contract Jones signed this offseason had an out after two years; Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll likely weren’t sold yet on Jones as their long-term answer.
Agreeing to that sized contract may not have been the way to go about it, but it allowed the team to use the franchise tag on running back Saquon Barkley. If the Giants have the ability to hit the redo button on this offseason, they would have likely flipped that scenario, working out a long-term deal with Barkley and using the tag on Jones.
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